The Magical Spider-Man
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Sequel to 'The Acromantula Wizard'. HP/Spiderman AU Crossover. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Now that he has the power, Harry Potter tries to live up to his responsibility... as Spider-Man.
1. Death Eats Harry Potter-

_Title: The Magical Spider-Man_

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: JK Rowling has Harry, and whoever else from the books show up in these plots. I don't own either and I'm not making any money from all this, so don't bother suing me. I'm basing this on equal parts from the book and the movie, the Harry Potter book and movie that is. The book goes into more detail, but some parts of the movie are... better I think. In particular all the scenes involving Luna.

Summary: HP/Spiderman AU Crossover. With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Now that he has the power, Harry Potter tries to live up to his responsibility... as Spider-Man.

Story:

_Death Eats Harry Potter..._

He shot out of the fire in an explosion of green flames, only his enhanced agility allowing him to avoid sprawling out on the ground. Fortunately, no one noticed his less than graceful entrance, seeing as the entire building was aflame and blasts of spell-fire were shooting all over the place.

"Ooohh-kaaayy! May not have been a good idea after all!" he said to himself.

Something was shooting at his head! He ducked under it and dodged to the right, and then jumped to the far left, mere instants before flaming debris fell down where he'd been. More something's were shooting at him, but they were coming from behind him!

He jumped again, this time landing on the ceiling, flipping around so his hands and feet could grab purchase. Unfortunately there was also a lot of smoke on the ceiling with him. While it concealed him from view, it also meant he couldn't breathe and it would be lethal to try so. Then he heard a voice through the smoke, coming in the same direction whatever it was he'd been dodging had been coming from.

"Where is it?! What was that?! Do you think they sent in some dark creature?" a man's voice called out.

"I-I-I... I don't know, dear! Hurry! We have to get away!" a woman's voice shouted to the first.

"I can't! Not until the Floo clears!" he shouted back.

Oops. Him arriving when he did stopped the people who lived here from escaping to safety. Well, no time to cry over spilled milk. He had to fix this, maybe even make it so they wouldn't have to escape at all.

He shot out a web line and zipped across the ceiling to an open area that fortunately had clear air. He took a couple deep breaths and then started trying to figure out where exactly he needed to be. Luckily, a werewolf crashed through the window right in front of him. Followed by two more and a squad of Death Eaters just outside that window with wands lighting up the wards outside.

"Bugger!" he yelled and started shooting out web shots as fast as he could pump his arms.

Unfortunately, even the webs with trace amounts of silver in them didn't do much more than annoy the insane beasts. Well that, and get their attention. And maybe a mild rash. Which in hindsight might end up making them even more insane.

"OK, enough with the silver webbing," he said to the growling dark creatures. "Here doggies! Nice doggies! Good doggies!"

They all three howled and charged straight for him.

"Bad DOGGIES! BAD!" he screamed as he ran down an adjacent hall and started jumping from surface to surface. Unfortunately, the werewolves matched him jump for jump, their claws enabling them to cling to the walls and ceilings the same his own powers did for him.

"Gotta lead them away from the family," he said to himself as he came to another hallway intersection. He somehow knew exactly where the innocents he was trying to protect were in relation to him, so he went down the hall that was in the opposite direction.

He used his web lines and zipped the distance when and where he could, but for the most part he was just running flat out between jumping all over the Floor, walls, and ceiling while dodging the howling monsters. He had no plan, no clue about what to do. Luckily, he came across the kitchen, complete with all the silverware for the household. Emphasis on the _silver_ part.

"Din-din!" he couldn't help from shouting out as he overturned a number of the drawers and tables, sending their contents into the air before kicking, punching, and slapping it all towards the snarling beasts. He remembered his Aunt Marge shouting the same thing to get all her dogs running right at her.

Enough of the silverware impaled the creatures that their snarls turned to whimpers of pain. He wasn't about to finish them off though. In all likelihood, they were ordinary people not in control of their actions, and were being forced to do this, rather than enjoy doing it like that Greyback fellow. He waited a few moments, and then made his decision. He kicked them over, made sure the implements were in non-vital places, and then used his silver-laced webs to tie them up, after giving them muzzles of course. Once that chore was done, he started making his way back to the family, who oddly enough were still here. He could sense it.

"Who-who-_who are you_?!" the only adult wizard there screamed at him when he burst in on them from the hallway. His wife, a muggleborn witch by all appearances, was behind him, safe-guarding their children. "Wh-_what_ are you?"

"Now is not the time," he growled, not bothering to disguise his voice beyond what the mask did for him, "Why haven't you gotten out already?"

"The Floo stopped working after you came through!" the wizard accused him. "What did you do?"

He considered and then jumped over to the fireplace and examined the still green flames. That was odd, a Floo was only supposed to be temporary, and after delivering its person, it returned to being a normal fire. But somehow... wait a second! He reached down and picked up a small, filament thread from the Floor. As he picked it up, it became clear that it was going into the fire, but somehow not being burned up!

Or... wait, could it be? Maybe it wasn't going _into_ the fire, maybe it was coming _from_ the fire!

He quickly tossed the thread to the wizard and the witch. "Here!" he told them, "Hold on tight, don't let go, and... well, let the magic take you. Trust me! Those wolves won't be down for long and the Death Eaters will be coming in after them! Go!"

The family quickly grabbed hold of the web line, but nothing was happening. Until he kicked the wizard in the rear and sent the lot of them careening headfirst into the green flames. The moment they were gone, the fire returned to normal and then was snuffed out by some kind of ward effect that he guessed did something to the Floo Connection.

"_Crucio_!"

He was already moving before the first syllable of the Unforgivable spell could be uttered. The Death Eaters had come in when the noise from the werewolves attacking had subsided and apparently witnessed the family escaping the premises. Beyond that, all they would be able to report later was a shadowed figure leaping and jumping about, dodging rather than blocking their spells, and shooting out ropes of a material to be eventually identified as spider webbing.

There were, as expected, nearly half a dozen masked Death Eaters attacking the place. Unfortunately, not counting the subdued werewolves, he was facing only four of the assigned seven dark wizards, (six man Death Eater squad and their team leader). Which meant he did not know where the leader and two others were at, which could potentially be bad. Very bad.

He stuck to the ceiling as much as he could. Despite them having seen that he'd jumped up onto it several times, not to mention jump down from a place that could only be from above, they still didn't bother looking up most of the time, and when they did, their eyes went right to the corners, or the ceiling that was directly above and in front of them and nowhere else. Thanks to his Danger Sense, he knew exactly who was looking where and if they saw him or not, so despite wearing a vivid blue and red suit with near-glowing white eyes, they rarely saw him long enough to actually shoot him with any of the spells they were casting, most of which had a minimum of three syllables, and thus took one and a half seconds to say and another half a second to be cast at all. Given his Danger Sense's warnings combined with his supernatural reaction speed and agility, a two second window may as well have been a two _minute_ window!

Then they did the best, and stupidest, thing imaginable. They put themselves back to back, practically right below him, and kept their wands pointed outwards from the center. After attaching it to the ceiling, he lowered himself down behind them, holding onto the web line with his hands, while his legs were bent, keeping his feet also on the web line, which helped him to control how far down he went. He waited patiently, but after a full ten second wait of nothing but tense silence, he lost interest in the waiting game and using both web shooters, he silently attached web lines to all four Death Eaters and then retracted back up to the ceiling.

"Ahem," he coughed subtly, making them all jump.

With no more warning than that, he gave a sharp, upward tug on all the web lines and suddenly had the masked terrorists hanging from the ceiling, screaming their masks off. A couple of well aimed, and properly controlled, punches and some excess webbing to cocoon them the rest of the way up, and they were knocked out and tied up with a virtual bow on top.

Which is, of course, when the missing Death Eaters decided to walk in.

"Where are they?" a familiar voice growled at the other two. It was Macnair. He was even carrying his familiar ax, the one he _would_ have used on Buckbeak had he and Hermione not interfered a few years back.

"They must have gotten out the Floo, there ain't no other way out of here," the masked goon on the left remarked. They were talking about the family, not their bound and unconscious compatriots, he realized.

"Find them! And get the others to help you, lazy bums! I'm going to find the damn wolves. If they've run off, it'll be more than just their hides on the spit!" Macnair growled and stomped off. The moment he was around the corner, the two remaining Death Eaters were assaulted by a shadowy figure, moving in blurs of red and blue color. A few well-placed punches and a kick thrown in for good measure had them knocked out. Add a bit of webbing and they'd joined their fellows on the ceiling.

He briefly considered going after Macnair, but a tingle up his spine reminded him of the other assaults being perpetrated this night. He jumped over to the fireplace, grabbed the powder from the mantle and called out the next address even as the flames, which had been restored after defeating the other Death Eaters, turned green. Knowing what to expect this time, he kept his eyes open and watched for an open 'grate' as he spun about through "Floo Space" and when one became available, he shot out his strongest, most elastic web line and let it continue to extend once he'd felt it connect.

Shortly, he came tumbling out of his destination, but unlike before, there was no firefight going on. The room was dark, save the glow of the green flames. He disconnected the web line, sticking it to the Floor in front of the fireplace he'd just come from and then jumped up to the ceiling, trusting his senses to find the potential victims of the Death Eater attack.

After a few moments of extended silence, he deduced that the attack, if it was indeed eminent, had yet to start. Whoever lived here, in all likelihood was still asleep. He briefly considered moving on to one of the other locations, but after glancing back at the Floo, he decided to find an alternative method of getting there. Better to leave the family a way out if they ended up needing it.

Back at Malfoy Manor, not that our hero knew it at the time, Goyle Sr. was marshaling his forces to attack his appointed Floo Address, being the last to be deployed. Unfortunately, and he couldn't figure out why, every time they tried to get through, nothing happened. If one were to compare the Floo System with a phone network, they would be getting a "busy signal" indicating that the Floo they were trying to reach was already actively connected to another Floo and could not be interrupted. Seeing as they did not know that, Goyle rather foolishly went through an entire month of the Malfoys' Floo Powder rations, before Narcissa Malfoy finally stopped him and explained what was likely happening.

In the meantime, our intrepid hero had finally found his alternate route to the next target of the forces of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Turns out they were right next door.

Making his way to the roof, he quickly got himself oriented and recognized another team of Death Eaters just down the street, assaulting the wards of the building there. Anchoring a couple web lines to a pair of sturdy looking gargoyles, he stepped back until the lines were tight, and then leaned back just another bit more before letting go. He slingshot high into the sky, but also down the street at a higher speed than he could just web swing it. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough, as the wards fell just when he was at the height of his arc.

To make matters even worse, he saw that he would both overshoot his target, and miss it by several meters. Then he remembered an event from only a couple weeks ago, one he hadn't been able to easily replicate since, but nevertheless it was something he was willing to try. Putting his arms and legs flush to his sides, he felt a slight tug in his suit and quickly extended both arms and legs fully out to catch the wind, filament-thin webs held between them catching the wind and allowing him to BASE jump the rest of the way to his target.

Partly just because he could, but mostly to get the lay of the land, he did a flyby, circling all around the residence to see what he was about to be dealing with. Just under a dozen masked Death Eaters were in groups of two or three all around the place. With them, they had another four more werewolves, leashed with what were probably enchanted silver collars. Flyby done, he landed on the highest point of the house, which just so happened to be the chimney.

Diving in, he was somewhat grateful the fire had been banked for the night, managing to catch himself with a couple of web lines, allowing him to slow his fall, albeit still inverted. Poking his head out of the fire place, he was glad to see that all was quiet. For the moment at least.

Flipping out and landing in a three-point stance, he kept his senses wide open. Nothing.

Getting to his feet, he started searching for the family that lived here. As luck would have it, one of the children happened to need a drink of water and was heading to her parents' room so they could get it for her. Staying in the shadows and making no noise, he followed her and her father to the kitchen, jumping up to the darkened ceiling whenever he was about to be caught. Right as the girl was being sent back to bed; however, his Danger Sense went crazy!

Moments later, the windows nearest them crashed inward, snarling werewolves surging into the house. The little girl screamed, and her father was little better, but at least he picked the girl up and then ran with her. Before the closest werewolf could reach for them, a web shot physically knocked its claws away, and another shortly after snapped its jaw closed. The other werewolves quickly got similar treatments.

The dark creatures merely ripped the webbing away, but by that time the father and daughter had managed to get away. Roaring in rage, they initially made to go after the helpless family, but he wouldn't let them forget him so easily. Using his webs to pull himself closer to them faster than they could react, he tackled the lead werewolf from behind, slamming it face first into the Floor before jumping up and using his webs to 'pull' him back towards the ground that much faster, and making his kick to the werewolf's back that much harder when he landed.

Whimpering now, the werewolf tried to get to its feet, but he acted quicker than it could. He did an overhead drop kick to its head, and then reversed it with a heel kick to the chin, knocking it up and back. He flipped up in mid-air, kicked the wolf in the chest, knocking it back to the wall, and before he could even begin to fall back to the Floor, he shot out two more web lines and used them to pull him back toward the wolf for another debilitating kick. Something cracked, but unfortunately it was only the wall the wolf had landed in. A silver-laced web net later, and that was one down three to go.

All three werewolves tackled him together in a massive pile-up, tearing at him with their claws, and snapping at him with their teeth. It was only due to his enhanced strength and quick reflexes that kept him from getting bitten, but at the cost of getting loads of scratches all over him. As resistant to spell-fire as his suit was, it was just as vulnerable as everything else to a werewolf's claws.

Shooting out a web line, he pulled himself from the 'dog pile' and then immediately turned around and swung back at them, feet extended. His kick landed, knocking them all back and away. Just as he was about to continue their tussle, however, a scream pierced the night. Coming from the direction of the parents' bedroom.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed and shot a few dozen silver-laced web nets over the werewolves and then immediately started making his way down the halls to where the Death Eater victims were undoubtedly being attacked, swinging where he could, but mostly crawling and jumping along the walls and ceiling.

He managed to swing through the double doors of the bedroom just in the nick of time to see the Death Eaters from outside pointing their wands at the cowering family, the father and mother holding their children between them. One of the dark wizards had already cast a spell, and he knew he didn't have much time, despite it looking like the magic and everything else was moving in slow motion.

Moving between the family and the oncoming spell bolt, he was already unleashing a huge amount of webbing, weaving it in his hands, back and forth. A heartbeat later, in the space of time it took the spell to be cast and it taking effect, he had completed his web shield and only just braced himself for the impact as it hit. Thankfully it wasn't one of the Unforgivables, otherwise he was sure that he wouldn't have made it in time. With the exception of the Death Curse, the other two take instant effect and as the title suggests, there is no blocking them.

The shield crumbled in his hands, but thankfully the magic in the spell had expired, telling him that it had been a pretty powerful curse, and not something that could affect Acromantula silk... beyond destroying it that is. Standing tall between the Death Eaters and their potential victims, he said nothing and trusted his Danger Sense to warn him if one of the masked dark wizards before him were going to try anything.

"Who are you?" snarled the one in the middle of the group before him.

He kept his mouth shut, not trusting that they couldn't somehow recognize him by his voice or his way of speaking. Clenching his fists, he prepared for what was coming.

"Avad—AAH!" the same Death Eater screamed as a web shot simultaneously blinded his mask and knocked his wand from his hand. In the following moment, the other Death Eaters were similarly blinded and disarmed. Moments after that, they were all splattered either to the Floor, ceiling, or wall in a variety of web nets, and then it was just him and the family.

Without turning to face them, he said to them, "Call the Aurors, and then get out of here. Go somewhere safe. Hogwarts, St. Mungo's, the Ministry, or even just a friend's house. I'll go with you. There are werewolves in the house."

"Who-who-who...?" the father kept trying to ask, but he didn't give him a chance to ask properly.

Then again, neither did the werewolves that came charging into the bedroom.

Thanks solely to his Danger Sense, he was already reacting by the time the dark creatures made themselves known, having jumped up, shot a web line and swung with full force against the first one's body, knocking it back into the others and all of them into the hall. He rotated his wrists a bit more than usual before creating a silver-laced web wall in the doorway. At the very least, the magic that gave the werewolves their weakness to silver should keep them from tearing it apart too easily. He hoped.

"No time for questions, we need to get you out of here and to some place safe!" he shouted and kicked open the window to the balcony. "If I get you to your fireplace, do you know some place you can go?"

The father was still mumbling and stuttering his questions, so the mother took it upon herself to slap some sense into him. The father took a moment, and then turned to face their masked savior and nodded his head, saying, "I can get the fire stoked and ready in moments. I know the Floo Address for the Ministry Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I... can you really get us to a fireplace?"

"Kids first, then your wife, then you!" he ordered, webbing the kids and sticking them to his back before anybody could say a word. "Hold on tight kids!" he shouted as they leaped off the balcony, only for him to snap out his left hand, and then swing back down to the Floor below on the web line. A couple of quick web shots took care of the window by knocking it open. Luckily the windows were the kind that opened inwards and didn't have any kind of bar blocking the open space.

Once there, he swung and jumped his way to the kitchen, which thankfully had its own 'enlarged' fireplace for Floo travel. Unfortunately, the fire had been banked earlier in the evening. "Get the fire going," he ordered the children, "while I go get your mum and dad, all right?" He didn't wait to see if they agreed, already moving for the outside and the second Floor balcony.

He managed to get back outside, but not at a point with easy access to the same balcony, so he had to swing up and around the building for a bit, until he found the correct balcony. The moment he did, he arrested his momentum with another web line, putting him above and outside the second Floor door. Snapping out both wrists, he fastened two more web lines on either side of said door and used his enhanced strength to dive right in to the bedroom. Both witch and wizard had their wands out, and the web wall was starting to look a little thin.

"Next!" he called.

"Take me!" the father cried out, "I'm the only one that can get the Floo going, I said!"

Harry reinforced the web wall, which was holding up really well, and then grabbed the wizard by the back of his neck, and said with a soft growl, "If you insist." At the same time he grabbed the witch and put her in a fireman's cradle and then jumped out the window. Rather than use his web lines, however, he just jumped and landed on the ground, bending his knees to help absorb the impact.

As it would have been rather dangerous to jump while holding another person by the neck, what he'd actually done was toss the man into the air once they were outside the building and after he was on the ground, used his webs to catch him and pull him safely back to the ground. The guy was still screaming his head off by the time they reached the kitchen.

"You know, if you want the werewolves to know that you're no longer in the bedroom and now here, feel free to go on screaming," he glibly told the man after setting him down next to his family. The wizard quieted down real quick after that.

A couple minutes of hasty wand work later, the fire was burning green and they were all going to the Ministry to report the attack and look for safety. Well, all of them except for their mysterious savior that is.

He jumped out the window the moment that the family were safely away and went to take care of the werewolves. Only to come face to face with a sickly yellow spell bolt before he'd cleared the windowsill. The force of it threw him back into the house, not that he could do much about it as he was an unbearable amount of pain at the moment!

"AAARRRGGHHH!" he screamed as he convulsed on the ground for a few seconds.

Compared to Voldemort's, this Cruciatus curse was absolutely pathetic. But it was still the Cruciatus curse! Thankfully, it fell away after a relatively short time.

"Oh that hurt," he groaned, trying to make his body respond properly.

"Who the bloody hell do you think you are?" a muffled voice came from the window.

He didn't bother answering; shaking his head to clear the remaining cobwebs and regain his focus. Getting up, he did his best to ignore the pain shooting throughout his entire body. His Danger Sense gave only a moment's warning.

"Ah, ah, ah," the voice taunted, "Don't bother. _Crucio_!"

He flexed his whole body and jumped up to the ceiling, narrowly missing the dark curse. Snapping out his wrists, he caught the Death Eater's wand with a web line and yanked hard. The wand went flying, the masked Death Eater crying out with rage at his loss, before ordering his three buddies, "KILL IT!"

From that point on, he no longer had a chance to counter attack as they all were firing curses without end, most of them not bothering to shout the curses out loud. As such, he had to rely almost entirely on his Danger Sense to successfully dodge all of the spell bolts and the other more dangerous effects. Due to his inexperience, however, he was less than one hundred percent successful. Thankfully, the truly lethal curses and hexes set off a bigger ping for his Danger Sense, letting him know he _had_ to dodge those!

Leaping and jumping all over the place, both inside and outside, he shot web shots as often as he could, and even unleashed some unique webbing effects of his own, when he could afford to that is. For the most part, however, he just focused on staying alive and not getting killed. It only got worse when the first Death Eater got his wand back and joined the fray.

Seeing that he was seriously outnumbered, and possibly out-matched, however unlikely that was, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor as the case may be. Shooting a line out the nearest open window, he zipped along it as fast as he could toward freedom. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough.

A wave of force from one Death Eater's wand knocked him off target and into the wall rather than the open window. He didn't have time to lick his wounds, so he immediately got back to his feet and was up and running... up the wall.

"What the...?!" one of them cried out.

Once he was in the corner between the ceiling and the wall, he spun, shot out two lines of his most elastic webbing, and pulled, before letting go with his feet. He flew through the air faster than any of their spells and was in their midst before they could do anything. Rather than web them up or even knock them all out with kicks and punches, instead he did the next best thing.

He snapped every one of their wands in the blink of an eye. And then he went for the window again.

Good thing too, he figured as at that moment one of the werewolves from earlier made its way into the room and by its snarling roar, it was not happy. Seeing his good deed for the night was done, he decided to forgo the last address as he knew he would be of little good once he got there. _IF_ he got there! (As luck would have it, fortunately that last address was the one that Goyle Sr. had been assigned and was even now still blocked by his web trick while in the Floo Network)

He swung back to the last house he'd been in with an open Floo connection and used it to get back to Hogsmeade. If he'd stayed around for even a minute longer, he might have seen the first of the Aurors Apparating in to check on the reports of attacks at various homes in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the Death Eaters saw them coming and managed to corral the werewolves, those that weren't still webbed up that is, and use Portkeys to get away in time.

After sneaking out of the home he'd used the Floo of, he web swung his way back up to Hogwarts castle and then to Gryffindor Tower. He only had to use two spare web cartridges to make the trip this time. Wall crawling up to the outside window of the Sixth Year boys dorm, he silently opened the window, checked with his Danger Sense to make sure the coast was clear, and then slipped inside the dark bedroom. Taking off the red mask, he took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.

He knew he'd be hurting in the morning. Hell, he was hurting now, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that he had saved lives tonight. Not by doing nothing, not by sitting and let the impossible happen to him, but by going out and actually making a difference and using what he could do to help people. Taking off his costume, he quickly jumped up to the ceiling and hid it in the hiding place only he could reach, before allowing gravity to affect him once more and falling into the warm, soft, bouncy goodness that was his four-poster bed.

Harry Potter sighed one last time as he allowed the sleep of heroes to take him.

_To Be Continued..._


	2. -And Spits Out Spider-Man

_...And spits out Spider-Man!_

He woke up with a start after only a couple hours sleep. He was about to turn over and get some more sleep, but the curtains to his bed were suddenly pulled open and a loud voice shouted his name.

"Harry! Good, you're up! Come on, let's get to breakfast already! I'm starving!" Ron Weasley, his soon to be dead best friend of six years, shouted at him enthusiastically.

"How is it, all of a sudden, I'm the one being dragged out of bed, by Ron?" Harry asked himself as he got out from the covers and stumbled his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

An hour later, they were down in the Great Hall, and Harry was feeling much better, having gotten some real food into his system. Hermione Granger, their other best friend, had joined them and was finishing up a few last second touch-ups to her homework. IE, add another half a foot to the essay that was already two feet longer than it was required to be. She shot him a look after seeing him and Ron almost competing to see who could devour the most food. Well, Ron might have been competing, Harry was just plain hungry!

The morning post came in it's usual flurry of feathers and flapping. Hermione collected her copy of the Daily Prophet, while Harry fed Hedwig some bacon to see if she had brought him anything, and Ron tried to get Pig to calm down. Starting with Hermione, silence slowly spread across the Great Hall.

It wasn't until there were hardly any sounds, save those of quiet conversation and silverware clinking as a few that were still ignorant continued to eat, that Harry finally looked up at Hermione and saw the expression on her face.

"What is it?" he asked.

Mutely, she handed over the paper and just sat there, her expression one of stunned disbelief. The headline couldn't be missed, even if he'd still been half-blind without his glasses.

**DEATH EATER ATTACKS AVERTED! MASKED VIGILANTE SAVED WHOLE FAMILIES BEFORE AURORS COULD RESPOND! WHO IS THE **_**SPIDER-MAN**_**?**

Harry blinked, his expression soon matching Hermione's. He hadn't considered this aspect when he went out last night. Finally, after a few seconds for his brain to reboot as it were, he realized he needed to say something, anything to throw any future suspicion off him. But... what would he ask or say if he _wasn't_ the vigilante in the first place?

"Is this for real?" he finally asked, sounding rather numb about it.

Hermione was shaking her head, saying, "I don't know."

"Wicked!" exclaimed Ron as he got the paper next.

His friends turned to look right at the excited redhead. "Wicked?" repeated Harry.

"The Chudley Cannons won their game last night!" he commented, flipping the paper completely over so the headline was obscured.

In silent fury, Hermione grabbed the paper, flipped it over, and then stuck the headline right under the redhead's nose. It took him a few moments, but he quickly comprehended with a quiet, "Oh."

"Wait a second!" Harry did a sudden double-take, "The Cannons _won_ their game?!"

There was a sudden rustling of papers as people turned and looked for the article, and even more cries of disbelief. Hermione huffed and crossed her arms, asking her friends, "How is that more important to learn that someone is out there fighting You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters?"

"Hermione, it's the Chudley Cannons!" he said to her like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

After a second she shrugged and nodded her head, acknowledging the point. "All right, fair enough. But what about this masked vigilante? And why is it you think they call him Spider-Man? Does he have eight limbs or is he part arachnid?"

Ron shivered, "Ugh, spiders!"

"I don't know. There isn't a picture," Harry said, while privately adding, '_Thankfully._'

"Let me see," Hermione grabbed the paper again and began reading through the entire article. "He saved no less than three families from attacks by Death Eaters and werewolves. Although it is hinted that he prevented two other attacks. Oh! Uh, also, there was another break out at Azkaban. The Aurors responding to the families, claiming they were attacked, didn't even notice the alarms coming from the prison until it was all over. It says here that one of the families even managed to get the Minister so worked up that he called extra Aurors from the prison to help in the response, leaving only a handful at the prison. All of them are now missing, along with a number of..." she stopped reading and was visibly distraught.

"Hermione?"

Clearing her throat, she continued where she had left off, "... along with a number of high profile prisoners that had been arrested in the Department of Mysteries in early June. Including, among others, Lucius Malfoy, Walden Macnair and Tiberius Nott." She stopped reading and looked up at the two of them. "They're out. All of them."

Harry frowned and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Yeah, but," said Ron, "they're not going to try anything. Not here. Not while Dumbledore is still around. You-Know-Who is scared of him. Remember?"

"But the Professor has been disappearing off and on for weeks at a time," Hermione argued.

"Don't worry about that," Harry assured her. "What else does it say about the vigilante?"

"Well, not much I'm afraid," she answered. "It was a man and he demonstrated superhuman powers. He crawled on the walls, swung on webs, which it says the Aurors found at the scene, but were too degraded to get an accurate magical scan from. The only other mentions are that he was very fast, very strong, and had the symbol of a spider on his chest."

"Well that says it all right there," Ron exclaimed. "He's evil. Has to be. Anybody that puts a spider on his chest." He shivered again. "Evil. Pure evil."

Harry rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"And the fact that he saved several people's lives while fighting dark wizards and werewolves?" she argued with the redhead.

He just shrugged and shook his head. "Doesn't matter. May not be Death Eater evil, but still evil."

"Oh honestly!" she rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the paper.

For the rest of the day, the only thing anyone would talk about was Spider-Man this, or Spider-Man that. Harry truly had no idea before now just how much people would see anything special in standing up against Voldemort, or even just his forces. Although given the way they kept placing him up on a pedestal, it really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise after all. Only Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix had ever stood against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters and lived to tell about it. That there was a single individual who not only had defied them, but outright defeated them without being killed or worse... it was sending shock waves throughout the school and undoubtedly the rest of the Magical Community.

Harry just hoped that nobody ever thought to interview the Acromantula or Centaurs.

As luck would have it, right at that precise moment, Luna Lovegood strode right up to the Gryffindor table, a quill and parchment in hand with her blonde hair done up in a messy bun and poor-fitting glasses on the tip of her nose. Minus the acid green robes and the addition of her typical radish earrings, it looked to Harry like Luna was trying to make herself look like Rita Skeeter.

"Luna? What are you doing?" he asked, doing his best to hold back the laughter.

"I am investigating. Miss Skeeter, amateur that she is, seems to be able to get... the scoop on whatever story she is pursuing. I imagined that even though she is still an amateur and no longer a professional, she must be doing something right. What do you think?" she replied with a matter-of-fact tone.

Harry had to be honest. "I think you mimicking Rita Skeeter is one of the scariest things you've ever done and as your friend, I'm asking you to please stop."

"OK," Luna smiled and let down her hair and took off the glasses. "What do you know about the Wizard-Acromantula?"

Unfortunately, Harry had been taking a sip of his juice just as she asked this and he couldn't help doing a classic spit-take, spewing his juice all over Ron.

"Oy! What's the big idea Harry?" he protested, wiping the juice off him.

Shooting Harry a concerned look, Hermione turned her attention to Luna and asked, "What do you mean, Luna? What is a... wizard acromantula?"

"You're reading about him in the competition's paper," she pointed at the article about the Spider-Man. "Do you happen to know if he's responsible for all the extra webs that have been found throughout the area? Or perhaps if he happens to have a craving for liquified organs?"

They just sat and stared at her.

"How else would he replenish his Acromantula powers?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Er, what makes you think he has Acromantula powers?" Harry asked in reply.

"Well," Hermione interjected, "I'm regretful of saying it, but even I can see how one could come to that conclusion." Picking up the paper, she scanned and read off key excerpts. "Immense strength... webs... sticks to the walls... webs... crawls on the ceiling... webs... disappears into the shadows and dark corners... oh look, yet another mention about the webs he used. And then there is the interview with the Jameson family, each of whom was rescued and sent by this masked hero to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. They all confirmed that he had the symbol for a giant spider on his chest. Hm... Perhaps it is the suit that gives him his abilities?"

"But then anybody could be a Wizard-Acromantula," Luna pointed out. "Even several people at once."

"Whose to say that it isn't?" Hermione argued back. "After all, these attacks supposedly took place last night within minutes of each other, and yet not one of these listed locations are within 'swinging' distance of each other. He would had to have either known exactly where the attacks were taking place and had a series of Portkeys made ready, or Apparated there. Either way, it's highly suspect as he would had to have known precisely where to be beforehand."

"What about the Floo?" Ron mumbled.

"No, there's a side article here in the travel section stating that the Floo network has been down since last night. Some kind of malfunction with a number of locations, so the whole thing has been shut down for maintenance." Hermione stated.

"Bloody hell! That is a big deal!" Ron's eyes went wide as the revelation of the primary means of wizard transport had been taken down overnight.

"Not really," Hermione shrugged, moving on to other sections of the paper. "They say they'll have it back up and working by noon today."

"Did the article happen to mention what the exact malfunction was?" Luna asked, suddenly sounding suspiciously curious.

"Here," Hermione handed over the required section, while keeping the bulk for herself, "All I caught about it was something clogging up a number of fire places, leaving them open for most of the night."

"Hm, webs," Luna read out loud.

They all looked up at her. "I beg your pardon?" Hermione asked, her interest piqued.

"The afflicted fire places were clogged with webs," Luna smiled serenely and gathered her quill and parchment out of the air. "Thank you for your time." She then turned and walked off, her blonde hair bouncing gaily behind her.

"You don't think...?" Harry asked his two friends, trailing off before he could incriminate himself.

They shared a few glances with him and each other, and then shook their heads to the negative, saying together, "Nah!"

That night, Harry slept fitfully as he was plagued with dreams. Dreams very similar to what he'd experienced already since he'd gotten the Mark of the Acromantula and the Blessing of the Unicorns. It was also the night that he began to suspect the true meaning of the unicorn's remarks about a gift that would be revealed later on.

_Voldemort was angry._

_That wasn't even the scary part. No, the 'scary' part was that he wasn't showing it. In fact he was smiling and giving compliments to every agent present that had gone on the Azkaban mission. Rather than beam with pride and have some hope and satisfaction at their future as Death Eaters, every one that received the Dark Lord's compliments cowered and shivered in fear with mounting dread._

_The ones not receiving compliments and praise, were left bleeding and gasping on the floor, entirely ignored. Unfortunate for those left, especially those that had been... 'rescued' from Azkaban, the only ones present to receive the Dark Lord's wrath were those that hadn't even been able to leave to go on their 'distraction' missions. The even fewer that had escaped Auror custody to report back about what had truly happened last night, they were the ones still on their knees, sniffling and shaking, still suffering from the lingering pains of Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse._

_After completing his latest round of 'compliments', the very last directed to Malfoy for his "excellent job surviving the perils of Azkaban Prison", the Dark Lord finally turned his attention back to those kneeling before him._

"_Tell me again," Voldemort ordered them, his tone now decidedly in the 'pissed off' range._

"_It..." began one of the wizards that Harry remembered knocking out at the first house, but he was interrupted by one of the others behind him._

"_He!" the follower insisted._

"_He!" the first Death Eater corrected himself. "He came out of no where! We never even saw him until he struck. He took us out one by one until only a couple remained and... he was fast, faster than a unicorn in full sprint! He disappeared into the shadows every time we tried to fight him. He used webs, lots of webs, and he was stronger than a giant!"_

"_Who is he?"_

_At the simple question, all the Death Eaters that had been clamoring in agreement with their leader fell silent. As the silence began to turn deadly, one of the Death Eaters that had been left bleeding on the ground raised his head and spoke. "He... was garbed... in red," he gasped for breath, a horrid wet sound, "and blue. On his chest was the... *gasp* emblem... of a spider. His eyes, his eyes glowed white in the of the night..." the Death Eater collapsed and stopped breathing._

_Voldemort scowled and gestured. One of the Death Eaters standing off to the side rushed forward and grabbed the dead Death Eater, whether to take him to be healed, or to loot the body, nobody wanted to hazard a guess._

"_We... do not know who he is," the leader finally said. "Only that he is male, easily determined that he wore a skintight suit of red and blue, and he wears the symbol of the spider. His abilities... no one has ever heard of any living creature with abilities such as his!"_

"_Was he a wizard?"_

_Again, they all fell silent, some even looking to each other with a lot of shrugging thrown in. After a lengthy pause, the leader again spoke, "No one saw him cast any magic, my lord. The only weapon he wielded were the strange webs that he shot from his wrists at will. He held no wand, my lord."_

"_But he used the Floo?"_

"_Yes, my lord," was the immediate reply with a lot of head bobbing to back it up. Several Death Eaters had seen him either come out of or jump into a fireplace and use the Floo connection._

"_So," Voldemort drew his wand and started twirling it between his fingers, "we are dealing with either a Squib that has somehow empowered himself beyond mortal means, or a magical creature that, regardless of either, has knowledge of how to use the Wizard-Only-Transportation that is the Floo Network... and he knew the exact addresses I had sent all of you to. Is that what I am being told?"_

_Dead silence._

"_CRUCIO!"_

**[AN: Warning, the following is a spoiler for JKR's "HP & the Deathly Hallows" chapter 33 "The Prince's Tale". Please don't sue me.]**

_The dream shifted... _

_Snape and Dumbledore were strolling together in the deserted castle grounds by twilight._

"_What are you doing with Potter, all these evenings you are closeted together?" Snape asked abruptly. Dumbledore looked weary._

"_Why? You aren't trying to give him more detentions, Severus? The boy will soon have spent more time in detention than out."_

"_He is his father over again —" Snape growled._

"_In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother's," Dumbledore said, "I spend time with Harry because I have things to discuss with him, information I must give him before it is too late."_

"_Information," repeated Snape. "You trust him . . . you do not trust me."_

"_It is not a question of trust. I have, as we both know, limited time. It is essential that I give the boy enough information for him to do what he needs to do." Dumbledore insisted._

"_And why may I not have the same information?" Snape inquired._

"_I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket, particularly not a basket that spends so much time dangling on the arm of Lord Voldemort," the Headmaster said, his eyes twinkling somewhat._

"_Which I do on your orders!" Snape protested angrily._

"_And you do it extremely well," Dumbledore assured him. "Do not think that I underestimate the constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus. To give Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you."_

"_Yet you confide much more in a boy who is incapable of Occlumency, whose magic is mediocre, and who has a direct connection into the Dark Lord's mind!" argued Snape._

"_Voldemort fears that connection," said Dumbledore. "Not so long ago he had one small taste of what truly sharing Harry's mind means to him. It was pain such as he has never experienced. He will not try to possess Harry again, I am sure of it. Not in that way."_

"_I don't understand."_

"_Lord Voldemort's soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry's. Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame —" Dumbledore tried to explain._

"_Souls? We were talking of minds!"_

"_In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other." Dumbledore glanced around to make sure that they were alone. They were close by the Forbidden Forest now, but there was no sign_

_of anyone near them. "After you have killed me, Severus —"_

"_You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small service of me!" snarled Snape, and real anger flared in the thin face now. "You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore! Perhaps I have changed my mind!"_

"_You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?" Dumbledore reminded him._

_Snape looked angry, mutinous even. Dumbledore sighed."Come to my office tonight, Severus, at eleven, and you shall not complain that I have no confidence in you. . . ."_

_They were back in Dumbledore's office, the windows dark, and Fawkes sat silent as Snape sat quite still, as Dumbledore walked around him, talking._

"_Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?"_

"_But what must he do?" Snape asked._

"_That is between Harry and me. Now listen closely, Severus. There will come a time — after my death — do not argue, do not interrupt! There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake."_

"_For Nagini?" Snape looked astonished._

"_Precisely. If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops sending that snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Harry."_

"_Tell him what?"_

_Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in that collapsing building. Part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Lord Voldemort's mind that he has never understood. And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die."_

"_So the boy . . . the boy must die?" asked Snape quite calmly._

"_And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential." Another long silence. Then Snape said, "I thought . . . all these years . . . that we were protecting him for her. For Lily."_

"_We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength," said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. "Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth: Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort." Dumbledore opened his eyes. Snape looked horrified._

"_You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?"_

"_Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?"_

"_Lately, only those whom I could not save," said Snape. He stood up. "You have used me."_

"_Meaning?"_

"_I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter —!"_

"_But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?"_

"_For him?" shouted Snape. "_Expecto Patronum_!"_

_From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears._

"_After all this time?"_

"_Always," said Snape._

_[Now You Understand, Harry Potter.] The Unicorn herd spread out before him. He stood before them in the red and blue costume his silk suit had become._

"_Understand what?" he asked. "These dreams? I've always had a connection to Voldemort, so it's no surprise I would be getting visions of what is happening to him... but the thing with Dumbledore and Snape...? Voldemort wasn't there. I've always had the visions from his perspective before."_

_[Thanks in part to Aragog's Mark, that connection has been severed.] It was the unicorn that had escorted him out of the forest. [Our Blessing washed the rest of it away and replaced it with, something else.]_

_[Menace.] The Unicorn Elder intoned. [The Ability Of The Unicorns To Sense Danger To Themselves And Those They Care For. And Also To Manipulate That Potential In Ways To Avoid And Protect. We Have Given You This Power.]_

"_My Danger Sense!" Harry exclaimed, now truly understanding._

_[A Diluted And Somewhat Weaker Use Of The Ability, But No Less Useful.] The herd all were shaking their heads in approval. [With This Power, You Will Anticipate Threats To You Personally And Have Time Enough To Successfully Avoid It And Protect Yourself. Threats Not Just Physical, But Emotional And Psychological As Well. Do Not Ignore The Dreams Any Longer. Use Them. Use Them To Protect And Take Responsibility.]_

_The dreams faded as the sun rose..._

"GAH!" Harry jumped as soon as he awoke, the transition from dreaming to fully alert and wide awake putting him on edge. And the ceiling.

Shaking his head, he let go and allowed gravity to re-exert it's dominion over him as he fell back to bed. Laying there for a few moments, he began to consider this new information he had to work with.

Thanks to Aragog, he now had powers that no wizard before had ever had. Or if there ever had been anyone before, it was so long ago that no other wizard alive is even aware of it. Thanks to the Unicorns, he also has the power of Menace, visions and a "Danger Sense" that he shares with unicorns and what makes them so damn hard to catch. Thanks to this Menace ability, Harry could now see visions in his dreams of people plotting harm against him, or those that he cares about.

Since getting this ability, he had almost exclusively had visions about Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Before, he'd just thought they were the same kind of dreams/visions he'd had before regarding Voldemort, only less painful. Now he knew better, and there was one thing he could no longer deny. The night before proved, to himself at the very least, that he now had the power to take the fight straight to Voldemort himself, and therefore had the responsibility to do just that.

Except... Except that last night he'd had more than just a vision of Voldemort learning about "Spider-Man". He'd also had a vision of a conversation between Snape and Dumbledore. A vision that, according to several aspects of it, happened while he was still awake during the day.

So, good news, he didn't need to be asleep to see the threats 'as they happened', just anytime after they happen yet still in time for him to actually do something about them.

Bad news, however, was that Snape and Dumbledore were still under the impression that he still possessed the small part of Voldemort in his scar. Both Aragog and the Unicorn Elder had told him, explicitly that the Mark and the Blessing working together removed that entirely. Dumbledore was making plans without the information he needed. Harry's first instinct was to go and tell him right away so that those plans could be changed. Then he remembered what exactly those plans entailed, and he got a bit pissed.

Well, anybody would really. After all, any plan where somebody was _supposed_ to die was a bad plan in his book. Especially after it was no longer necessary.

And so things needed to change. Harry had to start making plans of his own, otherwise he would get swept up in the designs of others. First decision was an easy one. Don't tell anybody, not even Ron or Hermione, that he was Spider-Man. And despite Luna's insight into what he'd started calling himself, he liked the Daily Prophet's spin. For one, it rolled off the tongue easier. Second decision was not as easy, but just as obvious. Spider-Man would now fight the Death Eaters and Voldemort and anything else that threatened innocent people. It would mean a lot of late nights, lying to his friends, and enough stress to make everything he went through last year seem like First Year all over again, but it was still just as obvious.

Beyond that, he would play it by ear. Ron had tried to teach him how to 'see three or more moves ahead' while playing chess, but he wasn't the strategic type. He could usually see no more than two or three moves ahead, and that was what most called a 'tactical view' of things. Besides, it had served him well in the past, he was sure that it would all work out in the end. Especially with the suit that had liquid luck in its veins!

_To Be Continued... in _Astonishing Spider-Man!


End file.
